Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy

Together with the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, the project investigated sleep-dependent memory consolidation in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In our study we show that children with and without ASD do not differ in their sleep architecture (i.e. sleep onset latency, duration of different sleep phases). Although both groups benefited from sleep when performing different memory tasks, memory performance was lower in the group of children with ASD compared to the control group. However, regarding memory abstraction, only the children with ASD showed a sleep advantage. Since abstracted memories contribute to the formation of social and emotional schemata, we want to investigate within future studies whether the sleep-related abstraction advantage in children with ASD depends on the type of learning material.

Project team

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen

Prof. Dr Tobias Renner, Dr Gottfried Maria Barth, M.A., Prof. Dr Annette Conzelmann, Dr Lisa Hepp, Eva-Maria Kurz

Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology, University Hospital Tübingen

Prof. Dr Jan Born, Dr Katharina Zinke, Dr Damaris Schenk

Publication

• Kurz, E. M., Conzelmann, A., Barth, G. M., Hepp, L., Schenk, D., Renner, T. J., Born, J. & Zinke, K. (2019). Signs of enhanced formation of gist memory in children with autism spectrum disorder-a study of memory functions of sleep. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(8), 907-916.